6 Months Pregnant: Everything You Need to Know about Mom & Baby

At the beginning of your sixth month of pregnancy, the baby is about the size of a banana or large carrot. Still compact enough to move about easily in your womb, baby is at the same time now large enough to create feelings of tightness and discomfort for you as your body adapts to your little one’s larger physical size.

While your level of discomfort will increase, with symptoms such as a lack of mobility and difficulty breathing becoming prevalent, baby will contrastingly delight in its increased stature and continue to have spin, kick, wiggle, and dance about in your womb.

Right now, amniotic fluid is providing your baby with the nutrition and hydration it needs to grow and mature. Fast at work swallowing and inhaling nutritive amniotic fluid, baby is also practicing for its very first out-of-womb swallowing and digesting experiences in the real world.

It’s interesting to note that the amniotic fluid your baby is taking in can vastly change in taste dependent upon the food you are ingesting. For example, if you have recently eaten spicy foods, the amniotic fluid your baby will be taking in will have a spicy taste to it. If you have instead eaten sweeter foods such as bananas, the amniotic fluid will then taste sweet to your baby.

As you incorporate a diverse selection of foods and liquids into your diet, baby will be hard at work sampling each of the new flavors and using their newly developed taste buds to practice swallowing and gulping. Incredibly, baby will begin to develop preferences for certain tastes that will carry on even outside of your womb after birth. As such, it is critically important to eat a broad range of foods including vegetables, fruit, dairy, meat, fish and whole grains.

Your Physical and Emotional Health：Six Months Pregnant Symptoms

At this point in your pregnancy, baby is flourishing inside the walls of your womb and taking up copious space. You will at times find it hard to breathe or catch your breath, due to baby’s larger size creating pressure against your lungs.

In conjunction with an impaired breathing ability, you will likely experience back pains that can range widely in severity as your belly continues to expand and your center of gravity begins to significantly shift.

As you approach your twenty-fourth week of your term, you may feel inundated with emotional and physical symptoms with a wide range in severity.

Very common at this point is a reemergence of lethargy, depression, and overall exhaustion, as the many good feelings you previously experienced dwindle away. It’s important to remember that this is just a temporary period of your pregnancy and your symptoms will improve, with an upswing in mood, endurance, and strength looming ahead.

Common Symptoms for The Sixth Month of Pregnancy

Mild swelling:

Resulting from elevated levels of fluid, your body will experience swelling and bloating. If accompanied by blurry vision, call your doctor immediately, as this combination of symptoms may indicate the presence of pre-eclampsia

“Outie” belly button:

Due to your rapidly expanding baby bump, an outie belly button may occur – but will revert back to its original state in time

Increased vaginal discharge: Resulting from elevated blood flow, vaginal discharge can become far more prevalent during this part of your pregnancy

Fatigue and lethargy:

Very common is a reduction in energy, stamina, and overall endurance experienced recently in your pregnancy term

Hot flashes:

You can mitigate the discomfort from hot flashes by making a concerted effort to stay cool, drink plenty of fluids, and wear comfortable, loose-fitting clothing

Difficulty breathing: Resulting from baby’s increased stature, your lungs become impacted and result in a reduced ability to breathe freely

Dizziness and lightheadedness: Hypotension and downshifts from hypertensive states can result in dizziness and lightheadedness.

Blurry vision: Related to water retention, women in their twentieth week of pregnancy may experience blurry vision. Keep a close eye out for accompanying swollen extremities, as this may indicate the dangerous pre-eclampsia condition

Leg Cramps:

These painful cramps can vastly range in severity and may be improved by low-impact exercise, walking, and yoga

Facial hair:

Very common during pregnancy, facial hair can sprout up at various locations such as the upper lip, chin, and cheeks

Stretch marks:
Can become exceedingly bothersome at this point in your pregnancy. Itchy, red, and inflamed stretch marks may appear on your belly, buttocks, and other areas

Depression and mood swings:

Due in large part to reemerging symptoms of lethargy in combination with wildly fluctuating hormones

Additional Symptoms for The Sixth Month of Pregnancy

Your Baby’s Health And Status: Six Months Pregnant Baby

Growing concurrently with your baby, your placenta has vastly increased in size since the beginning of your pregnancy. Before this point in your term, your placenta has been heavier than your baby. Now your baby weighs more than your placenta and will continue to outgrow it and dwarf it in size completely.

Much like the sound of galloping horses, your baby’s heartbeat can easily be heard via a stethoscope. Many mothers will be stunned at the fast rhythm, as a baby’s heartbeat can be anywhere from 120 to 160 beats per a minute.

Physically, your baby still looks a bit ethereal. Underneath its transparent skin, capillaries are slowly forming that will eventually “blush” the skin to a pinker or reddish hue. As he or she continues to grow, they begin to show thicker eyebrows, clearly defined lips and are rapidly moving their eyes to and fro from beneath closed eyelids with dainty eyelashes.

Brace yourself for the coming weeks as your baby will start to become even more active than ever before. What may have felt like gentle kicks and fluttery movements from within you, may now begin to feel like much more capable and stronger nudges, kicks, and other various movements.

Resulting from your baby becoming coordinated at its moves, movements that you feel from him or her may begin to take you by surprise but are completely normal due to your baby’s improved control over their limb movements.

With body proportions similar to that of a newborn, your baby appears much like a miniature version of a baby. Baby fat has yet to make an appearance, and your baby still has quite a way to go in terms of overall growth and developmental processes.

Even so, amazing things are happening to your baby during this time. Just now beginning to form in their gut, baby’s first stool is accumulating from the myriad things he or she is digesting.

Primarily digesting amniotic fluid and dead skin cells, your baby is swallowing, gulping, and ultimately digesting its sources of nutrition and producing meconium with their bowels. Interestingly, the amniotic fluid contains trace amounts of sugar, which acts as a supplement to the overall nourishment they are receiving via your placenta.

Your baby’s respiratory system has by this time undergone massive development. However, their lungs are not quite ready for a life outside your womb.

Fast at work practicing the breathing movements required for post-womb life, your baby is steadily receiving oxygen from your placenta and will continue to do until they take their very first breaths outside of your womb.

Week by week

Week 21

Week 22

Week 23

Week 24

Baby now weighs more than your placenta

Formation of capillaries “blushing” the skin to a pink or reddish hue

Thickening eyebrows, increasingly defined lips, growing eyelashes

Increase in overall physical strength exhibited through stronger nudges, kicks, and other movements

Tips and Essential information at Six Months Pregnant

Varicose veins and their many related issues can be abated by wearing comfortable and loose-fitting clothing, along with remaining active and frequently changing positions

The loosening of pelvic muscles can result in indigestion and a sluggish digestive system. Eating small meals throughout the day and avoiding rich, fatty foods can alleviate much of the associated discomfort

Lightheadedness and dizziness are common symptoms during this point in pregnancy. However, keep a close eye out for chronic dizziness as this can indicate anemia or preeclampsia

Ensure that you are getting enough iron in your diet for adequate hemoglobin production and transport of oxygen

Make an effort to obtain plenty of vitamin C through foods such as potatoes, oranges, strawberries, and kiwi

Although edema is a common pregnancy symptom, keep a close eye out for severely swollen extremities. Co-occurring symptoms such as rib-pain, vomiting, intense headache, and vision problems can indicate preeclampsia and other critical pregnancy issues